Hurriyat's moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Saturday that it was ready for talks with the Centre for resolution of Kashmir issue, but that the back channels had "fallen silent" for the past two months.
Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, while allowing Bhat's plea challenging the latest of the detention orders under Public Safety Act, held his detention illegal on several grounds.
Pakistan on Friday claimed that any talks between the Indian government and separatist Kashmiri leaders will not be successful without its involvement.
Ahead of his talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will be meeting leaders of various separatist outfits from Kashmir over the next two days.
Suggestions from certain quarters, including Pakistan and the United States, about having "self-rule" in Jammu and Kashmir would also figure in the talks with Musharraf, he said.
He said no reduction of forces within the state, could become 'an impediment in the peace process.'
Geelani, who is visiting Jammu on November 12 and 13 to finalise the modalities of the talks, said the amalgam also plans to hold seperate meetings with Dogras of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh at a later date.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has quashed the detention of the ailing chairman of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani under the Public Safety Act and has ordered his release.
"Hurriyat has nothing to do with this meaningless exercise and will ask the people to stay away from it as well," Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the separatist amalgam's moderate faction, said after the Election Commission announced the seven-phased poll schedule for the border state.
Two persons were killed when policemen fired on protestors in Qamarwari and Sangrama areas of Kashmir valley on Monday, according to official sources.
"We will be meeting Musharraf on April 16. This has been verbally communicated to us," Hurriyat Conference's founder-chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told PTI.
The Centre is acting tough with Kashmir's separatist leaders by taking on their foreigner wives, refusing them to stay with their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir.
Highly-placed sources said an invitation will be sent as soon as Hurriyat leaders agree to hold talks with Patil.
The Centre also favours a dialogue with the Naxalites, said Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
The arrest of Mohammed Nayeem Khan, president of the National Front, came a day before a party convention.
The Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said that the deputy prime minister has agreed to hold 'unconditional' talks.
Ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, political parties on Saturday pitched for holding dialogue with "all stakeholders", including Hurriyat, to douse the unrest and banning the use of pellet guns by security forces.
'They (the Centre) have been talking in Mizoram to militant organisations... I don't think that option should be closed (in Kashmir),' the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Masarat Alam Bhat, who had been in custody under the Public Safety Act since April 2015, was released from Kathua district jail but subsequently re-arrested in another case.
The Mirwaiz said barring the opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, the Centre had taken no positive step to build the confidence of the people.
Significantly, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, in the latest issue of its mouthpiece Organiser, had criticised the BJP for ignoring the Hurriyat's visit to Pakistan.
Sources said the visit was likely to take place in the second week of December as the Mirwaiz was scheduled to attend two Organisation of Islamic Conference meets.
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani will meet its representatives on March 27.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached 17 properties of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali in a terror funding case, the agency said.
A massive manhunt is underway for three foreign terrorists, possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the deadly attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi that resulted in the loss of nine lives, including a two-year-old, officials involved in the investigation said on Monday.
Hurriyat had held the second round of talks on March 27 with the then deputy prime minister L K Advani.
The moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference has urged the Narendra Modi government to adopt the path of Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Atal Behari Vajpayee with regard to Kashmir.
